Furious Trump doxes Sen. Tom Cotton, releases personal cell
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
Tom Cotton’s personal cell phone rang all day Saturday. Not from constituents, not from colleagues. The Arkansas senator was doxed by the very man who once called him a friend.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
WASHINGTON — President Trump doxed Senate “friend’’ Tom Cotton on Saturday, blasting out the GOPer’s personal cellphone number online in furious retaliation for stopping a bill to make daylight savings time permanent While hailing Cotton as “a friend,” Trump laced into the Arkansas senator for being the main holdout on the proposed Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight savings time permanent for the country. “For some reason, Tom is stopping the Bill and, in the Senate, it’s very easy to do, it only takes one!
It should pass overwhelmingly, in a Bipartisan fashion,” the president vented on Truth Social. “So, everyone in Arkansas, a State I love, and won 3 times, the last by 34 points, tell Tom to, GET IT DONE! “Call Tom on his cellphone at … and let him know.” Trump famously released late Sen.
Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) personal cellphone in 2015 during their heated GOP presidential primary fight. The Sunshine Protection Act cleared the House overwhelmingly in July, 308-117, but has been held up in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to break a filibuster.
Cotton, who is up for reelection Nov. 3, was unmoved by the president’s broadside. “No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” the Arkansan countered on X.
No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter.
Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch… “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.” The US attempted year-round permanent daylight saving time in the 1970s but ultimately reverted to the clock-switch.
Efforts to make daylight savings permanent have gained traction in recent years. But Cotton has argued that starting the day with darkness in the winter months has negative implications for children waiting for their school buses in the morning.
Trump had been ramping up pressure on Cotton over daylight savings, singling him out in a rant Friday before he released his number Saturday. “Nobody wants to spend their precious time running all over the place, turning Clocks back twice a year and, having sunshine in the afternoon is better than early in the morning!” Trump later added. “It’s very expensive for our Nation where you have high and dangerous steeples to reach, like on churches and municipal buildings.
Almost everybody wants ‘The Sunshine Protection Act’ to pass, except for Tom Cotton.”
Original source:
Read at New York PostHow We See It
New Republican Times Editorial Board
Tom Cotton’s personal cell phone rang all day Saturday. Not from constituents, not from colleagues. The Arkansas senator was doxed by the very man who once called him a friend. President Trump published Cotton’s number online because Cotton helped stop a bill that would have made daylight saving time permanent. That is an intraparty feud turned personal, and it is a bad look for everyone involved.
We get the frustration. The twice-a-year clock change is an annoying, pointless tradition. A lot of Americans want it gone. Cotton’s procedural block was a stumble, especially since he had previously co-sponsored the same idea. But there is a line between twisting arms and throwing a man’s personal number to the public. This is not how you win a policy fight. Publishing a senator’s cell phone invites real trouble for him and his family. Even presidents who love a good fight need to know when to hold fire.
The left will milk this for all it is worth. They will use it to paint Republicans as a party at war with itself, and they won’t be entirely wrong on this one. Cotton is no liberal. He is a strong conservative on border policy, defense, and judges. Trump needs allies like that in the Senate. Turning on Cotton over a procedural move is how you lose a vote you could have won quietly. That is the real casualty here: the cause itself. The daylight saving battle just got buried under a story about a leaked phone number.
If the goal was to make Cotton squirm, mission accomplished. If the goal was to end the clock change, we are no closer. In fact, we are further away. The story now is the feud, not the policy. Someone should tell the president to take the number down and call Cotton directly. That is how adults settle things. And if they need a reason to talk, the clocks are still changing in March.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.